Have Your Carrot Cake and Experiment with It, Too

This morning, in a discussion about books on sugar addiction, I remembered David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating, which has a lovely picture of carrot cake on the cover. This also reminded me that many of you have been asking for our carrot cake recipe.

With sugar addiction or food addiction one might think they cannot have cake; however, research on managing cravings has demonstrated that complete abstinence triggers cravings just as over-consumption triggers cravings.

What’s your best bet for managing sugar addiction? Moderation — and having cake from time to time would qualify. In fact, having cake as a dessert after a well-balanced meal that includes plenty of vegetables, protein, fat and whole-food carbohydrates may decrease the likelihood that a sugary food like cake could trigger more cravings.

It’s definitely worth experimenting with to see how how it affects cravings. And for your experimenting pleasure, here’s our fan-favorite carrot cake recipe.

5 responses to “Have Your Carrot Cake and Experiment with It, Too”

I have an addiction to eating food…all foods, no special addiction to sugar. If I cut out any food groups
(including sugary sweets) that food group becomes more special ’cause it’s rare. unless I’m a diabetic which I’m not…sugar is a perfectly fine part of my food menu…no more or less important than anything else.

I love that take on it, Harriet. It really speaks to the whole forbidden fruit scenario that plays out when we label anything as off limits. I think your philosophy works for diabetics as well. Knowing you can have sugar in the future makes it easier to figure out if you really want it in that moment.

Have any of you tried a sugar substitute, all natural, called DiabetiSweet? Spoon for spoon sugar and no aftertaste. I use it but I don’t know any one else that even knows about it. I would love some feedback from those who investigate it and try it in baking.

I’m definitely a sugar addict. I can go for literally weeks without anything sweet and then have MASSIVE craving for candy, goo-ey cake, chocolate, anything that fills that “sugar hole” inside me. I also find that when I eat starchy foods – like potatoes – the cravings for sugar become almost unbearable. I guess I’ve come to know my body and it’s cravings quite well in the past 6 decades. I don’t mess with sugar. I don’t look for substitutes, including honey or maple syrup or molasses or splenda or stevia or anything else that tastes like sugar; and I don’t just have a little, hoping that will “fill-the-bill.” Because I know it won’t. I have found that eliminating candy and cake and cookies and other sugary things from my list of allowable foods helps me to not have cravings at all. And, I can live quite well without sugar.